Seems to me that instead of digging it up, you could do some sort of ultrasound scan or something to make sure its there before you start digging. You can check out the location on Wikimapia here.Since his big reveal in 1980, Mr. Diamond, the 49-year-old founder of the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, has been conducting tunnel tours via the manhole with the blessing of the D.O.T. But of late, Mr. Diamond has been pushing for another potential urban architectural “get.”
Behind a wall in the tunnel, near Atlantic Avenue and Hicks Street, he believes, there is a steam locomotive lying on its side like an abandoned toy train, in “pristine condition, a virtual time capsule.” And he wants to dig it up.
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Sunday, February 22, 2009
Hidden Trains of New York
Very cool article via Planetizen. It would be interesting to be there when they open up that Brooklyn subway wall and find a tipped over steam engine.
I've been on one of Diamond's tours of the tunnel. Truly amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe article doesn't mention Diamond's plan to run restored PCC streetcars from the Red Hook waterfront through the tunnel to Downtown Brooklyn. They were going to start tourist runs on a small section of track along the waterfront, and then Giuliani yanked their funding.
I was actually involved with Bob Diamond's trolley plan. I don't think it was a matter of Giuliani yanking their funding, I think it's more a matter of Bob Diamond and his apparent lack of ability to run an organization. They did start building street trackage, but for whatever reason, they didn't ever get around to finishing the one block of street trackage that they started working on, and eventually the city just tore up and paved over the half-finished track. The BHRA even had a decent-sized fleet of about 15 PCCs, most of which were stored at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, apparently without permission, and they've presumably been scrapped now. There are still a couple of cars standing outside on the original BHRA track, slowly decaying.
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